Lakes Entrance

Knowing that we were to stay six days here at Lakes Entrance and that we were being joined by my sister and her husband, we set about establishing a longer term camp than we had done in the past few days. Despite the very small site we managed we managed to create a four area abode with a private kitchen at the back, lounge room and dining room and of course our cosy bedroom. [the van] It's always fun to create a camp, different each time, working with different features of the environment. This one proved to be functional and comfortable when, after each day's sightseeing, the four of us dined and relaxed, chatting and enjoying our time together.

Lakes Entrance is a town of about 5000 people on the Ninety Mile Beach and the edge of the Gippsland Lakes and relies on fishing and tourism for its existence.  My sister has had many lovely family holidays here when her children were young and her accounts of these over the years were part of the reason we chose this part of our country to explore this trip.

Lakes Entrance from Jemmy's Point

The entrance that you can see in the above photo is actually man made although if nature was left to its own devices it would sometimes make its own entrance. [ or exit!] The seven rivers that flow into the lakes bring down a lot of sediment which creates banks, or jetties, in the lakes and raises the level of the water. In the past, when the water levels became very high and the heavy surf of Bass Strait on the other side pushed on the narrow strip, the water would burst through but not always in the same place as before. In 1891 a wall was built to fix an opening and since then it has been kept open by dredging so that fishing boats in particular could get through.

After spending the first day together relaxing and catching up on news we then spent the next one on a wonderful cruise around the lakes. There are several companies providing various kinds of cruise options however my brother in law recommended a three hour afternoon cruise with a family owned company, Lonsdale Cruises, and this proved to be the perfect choice for us. Skipper Tony took us in the smaller of his boats and, with only 35 of a payload possible of 50, we had room to move around comfortably as he gave an often humorous and always informative commentary. We heard about the history of the lake, indigenous use of it, and of course information about the many hundreds of birds we encountered. The indigenous people are the Gunaikurnai and they would have never been hungry with all the birds and fish to hunt.

Gippsland Lakes

Our thirty kilometre trip took us around Lake King, Metung, Rotamah Island, Chinaman's Creek as well as some other places I've now forgotten and finally out to the Entrance where we saw a couple of seals playing [ or feeding?] in the swells rolling in from Bass Strait. During the trip a delicious smell emanated from the lower part of the boat and soon after that Tony's wife, Melinda, came around with a plate of huge scones - strawberry ones! Couldn't resist one, even knowing that I should not indulge in the enticing strawberry cream topping. Well, Never mind. I'm on holiday, so concentrate of calories another time, I thought at the time but suffering regret later.

East Gippsland Lakes

The view above gives an idea of the expanse of the lakes which cover 420km square, or 42,000 hectares.

Lakes Entrance Harbour

Fishing boats, Lakes Entrance

We saw hundreds of these Black Swans either resting on the sand banks or feeding.

Black Swan

Gippsland Lakes

Black Cormorant,  Pelicans

 As we gently rounded a point and came across this yacht my imagination gave way to pirate ships hiding in coves - a remnant of my reading material during childhood!

In the same area I was interested to see this push - paddle canoe.

There are a number of holiday homes hidden around the lakes some of which can be reached by road while others require a boat. At one little cove we found several of these cute works of art created to claim the swimming spot for the holiday residents.

Shrike ?

I have been searching to get a definite identification of this bird we came across. I'm not sure but I think it might be a shrike.

After our lovely afternoon on the Gippsland Lakes we went back to our camp to prepare our dinner - a real Sri Lankan Chicken Curry, Bean Curry and our own special spicy coconut dressed salad. [Yes. I know. Coconut. More calories today.] This, we hoped, would erase the disappointment of our 45th Wedding Anniversary dinner at a local Indian restaurant the previous night. The aromas during cooking soon had our neighbours on both sides come over to see what was cooking. So sorry, we have cooked for only four! The taste? Perfect!  

A satisfying end to a most enjoyable day.